Flexing its Whole Foods Market muscles, Amazon announced an expansion of same-day grocery delivery in New York and three cities in Florida, after Walmart’s Jet.com and FreshDirect both announced plans for fulfillment centers in the Bronx, NY.
As the battle heats up for same-day grocery delivery in urban markets, Jet.com is opening a new fulfillment center this fall in the Bronx, NY to service New York City customers with not only food in a flash but other merchandise as well. See what other players are up to in the hyper-competitive market.
A new study of shoppers ages 14-24 by Fluent Commerce found that young shoppers weren’t as eager for fulfillment immediacy as you’d think in the age of Amazon Prime and guaranteed two-day delivery, with most digital natives still good with hitting the stores. See what else matters to the next wave of consumers.
Tokyo-based marketplace and logistics supplier Rakuten has acquired Curbside, a startup with $50 million in funding that powers same-day store and restaurant pickup of online orders, for an undisclosed amount. See what this deal means for the retail and restaurant customers of Curbside.
Jetblack, Walmart’s new invite-only, personalized shopping service aimed at busy moms in Manhattan and Brooklyn, allows members to get same-day orders fulfilled by texting them in, at $50 a month. It’s the latest example of the beast of Bentonville seeking to go upmarket and out-innovate main rival Amazon.
Target is taking a new approach to its distribution model for retail and ecommerce orders, testing out a “flow center” concept that draws from a common inventory pool and sends smaller shipments to stores to enable quicker turns and lower stock levels.
Ten public-private drone test projects have been approved by the Department of Transportation for various applications, including home deliveries, but Amazon was conspicuous by its absence from the group despite its high-profile Prime Air program.
Building off its Amazon Key offering last fall that lets couriers open smart locks and enter homes to drop off orders, Amazon is now enabling deliveries to the trunks of late-model GM and Volvo vehicles, the company announced.
In the endless march toward greater and faster convenience in shopping across channels, Target announced that 60 outlets in five major markets will offer a same-day delivery service on in-store purchases, making it easier to get bulky items home to an urban dwelling.
Going head-to-head with UPS and FedEx, which have owned the domestic space, DHL eCommerce, an arm of German logistics giant DHL, is launching a same-day delivery service in eight U.S. cities that some believe will have Amazon as a major client.